The Vatican has announced that retired Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died on Saturday at the age of 95. That comes after doctors said the ex-health pontiff’s had recently deteriorated due to his age.
“With sadness, I inform you that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died today at 9:34 in the Vatican’s Mater Ecclesiae Monastery,” the Holy See Press Office said.
His death comes just days after Pope Francis requested prayers for Benedict XVI during a public address on Wednesday, stating that the ex-pontiff was “very sick.”
“Let us recall him. “He is gravely ill, and we beseech the Lord to console and sustain him in this witness of love for the Church until the end,” Francis said.
According to France 24, those who saw Benedict a few weeks ago said his body appeared frail but his mind was sharp.
In nearly 1,000 years, Benedict XVI was the first German pope. He was the Pope of the Catholic Church from 2005 until his surprise resignation in 2013, when he stated that he no longer had the physical or mental strength to continue in his role.
During his reign, Benedict advocated for the Catholic Church to return to fundamental Christian values in order to combat the increased secularization of many Western countries. In his writings, the pontiff claimed that relativism, which denies moral and objective truths, was the central problem of the twenty-first century.
However, his legacy has recently been tainted by an investigation launched by German prosecutors, who accused the former pontiff of failing to prevent cleric abuse while serving as Archbishop of Munich and Freising between 1977 and 1982.
The former Pope insisted that he was unaware of the clergy’s transgressions in Munich, but he issued a “heartfelt request for forgiveness” for any mistakes he made in failing to prevent the heinous acts.
